TRUCKERS' TURNOVER * USA - Trucking companies hard-pressed to keep drivers on their payrolls

Long runs, dwindling pay send many looking for greener pastures

Elkton,MD,USA -The Delaware on Line, by AARON NATHANS -23 May 2011: -- This high-stress career path has plenty of forward motion but little upward mobility. And traditionally, that's meant high turnover for truck drivers... But lately, amid high gas prices, new government rules and an economy struggling to get out of neutral, truckers have been changing jobs with even greater speed... In the fourth quarter of 2010, annualized turnover at large-fleet, long-haul trucking companies was 69 percent, according to the American Trucking Association. That's the highest it's been since the second quarter of 2008 -- another period of high fuel prices... While other sectors have struggled, trucking companies are still hiring, said Bob Costello, the group's chief economist... (Photo from The News Journal, by ROBERT CRAIG - Carl Richardson of Hockessin won a top trucker award that earned him not only a trophy for his den, but almost a week in Orlando, Fla., for the competition finals. He's been driving for 27 years and now does mostly short-distance runs)